


Their mother's eyes

by theninjaprincess



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Baby Ori, Brother Feels, Gen, Mama ri - Freeform, Ri Family Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-22
Updated: 2015-07-22
Packaged: 2018-04-05 14:27:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4183308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theninjaprincess/pseuds/theninjaprincess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dori just needs to look into their eyes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Their mother's eyes

**Author's Note:**

> Ok so i haven't written anything in a few years. I decided to get back in it and I'm taking baby steps. Please be gentle and tell me what you think! I hope you like it :)

As Dori was busy cleaning the mess in the kitchen left behind by Nori and his group of less than savory “friends”, tiny footsteps and humming could be heard throughout the small and modest home of the Ri brothers. Dori smiled to himself as he dried off another plate before putting it away. It was funny how quiet it would be once Nori left the house, sometimes he thought it too quiet but now with just him, his recently cleaned kitchen and little Ori’s light footsteps it was quite peaceful. As he finished the last of the dishes he noticed the lack of noises from the second floor. Folding the towel he used for plates and assorted cutlery he went in search of his baby brother.

 

To keep Ori away from the rowdy group of Dwarves that had been by earlier for dinner (and who had practically destroyed his kitchen), he sent the little dwarf to play in the shared bedroom of his and Nori’s.

 

As Dori climbed the short flight of stairs his ears strained to hear any sign of his little brother playing to no avail.

 

“Hm, what is that little dwarf up to?” Dori asked himself as he approached the first door in the hallway. He poked his head into Ori’s and Nori’s bedroom and found it to be lacking any trace of the little dwarf save for his ruffled bedsheets and stuffed cat on the floor. Dori’s brow furrowed in confusion, “Ori?” He called out, he listened for any reply.  
“Dori, Dori!” A small voice called from down the short hallway.

 

Dori heard a soft giggle and the sound of fluttering paper come from his own room a few doors away from where he stood. He smiled and made his way over to see what Ori had gotten up to.

 

Opening his bedroom door revealed the inside of his room looked no different than when he had left it except for the now various parchments and knitting projects on his floor. Taking in the sight of the mess first it took him a second later to notice the short legs of a dwarfling flailing out of the chest at the foot of Dori’s bed. ‘ _Children’_ He thought exasperatedly.

 

“Ori, what are you doing in here?” He asked wanting to know why things were out of place in his normally tidy room. He also wanted to know what had caught his baby brother’s curiosity so strongly that he needed to go through the small collection of memories they had left from Erebor and the past years in the Blue Mountains. The silver haired dwarf walked to the end of his bed to sit and peered over the edge to find Ori gathering more keepsakes.

 

“I’m looking at pictures.” Ori answered without looking at his eldest brother. Dori inwardly sighed at the thought of picking up and organizing everything back in its place but Ori seemed quite happy that Dori couldn't bring himself to put a stop to the little ginger dwarf’s fun.

 

“And why are you looking at the pictures” The eldest asked going along with his brother’s antics.

 

“Cuase' they’re pretty!” The child stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

 

Ori had finally grabbed what he wanted and made his way to sit with his brother and show him what he had found. Ori looked up at his older brother with his sweet freckled face and gave him a smile before lifting up the first portrait in his lap for Dori to see.

 

The picture, Dori realized, was an ink sketch of a dwarowdam. A beautiful dwarowdam with a beaming smile, gorgeous hair and beard, and a tiny bundle held in her arms. Dori took hold of the picture and studied it for a while as Ori looked on in a curious manner. Dori smiled to himself as he traced the dam’s face gently and was almost surprised it wasn’t real. The art was so lifelike she looked as if she could get up from the chair she was sitting in and walk off the page. He didn’t know who had drawn the perfect memory of her and the baby in her arms but he could not deny the obvious talent the artist had had.

 

The little dwarf watched his older brother lay his hand lovingly on the old frame and wondered what was making Dori so happy. Ori set the small pile of pictures that he had found to the side, got up from his sitting position and climbed into his older brother’s lap to get a better look with Dori and to see whatever it was that he missed. Ori didn’t know who the dam was but the drawing and the woman were both beautiful and he wanted a closer look at the lines of ink that made her.

 

“Dori,” Ori said, pulling Dori from his reminiscent thoughts. The older dwarf looked down at Ori and waited for him to speak.

 

“Who’s that lady?” Ori asked pointing to the ink drawing.

 

Dori sat in stunned silence too taken aback by such an outlandish question. He looked at his little brother’s inquisitive face and couldn't understand why Ori would ask such a question. Who was she? Who was she? Dori could have laughed at the ridiculousness of such a question. She was the most important dwarrow dam in the entire world, the most important in Dori’s world. The most beautiful and brave person he’d ever known, the person who had given him life and his two brothers who he loved more than anything in the world. How could Ori be so lost on her identity? Why would that even be a question? Dori was asking himself these questions over and over in his head, too thrown off by his brother’s confusion till it finally hit him.

 

Ori had never met her. He had never known a day with her. Ori had never met their mother who had died bringing him into the world.

 

A sickness had swept through the Blue Mountains during a particularly harsh winter and had caused much tragedy for the dwarrow that were struggling with the poverty that had stricken many of the Erebor refugees. Months had passed after the epidemic had gone but their mother had become weaker and grew worse as time went on and she discovered that she was carrying another child. Dori and Nori had tried to keep their mother in good health as her pregnancy progressed but sadly her health was only deteriorating and they could do nothing but watch. When she had gone into labor Dori and Nori could tell that she was using the last of her strength to bring her final child into the world.

 

Dori sat with his little brother, quiet for so long as he remembered the joyous yet tragic occasion of gaining a brother and losing a mother. He pulled himself out of his own memories and wracked his brain on a way to explain who she was. His mouth opened and closed trying to find the words and decided just to say it out right.  
“She’s our mother.” Dori said simply and smiled down at Ori whose eyes widened with wonder.

 

Ori looked at the drawing and back at Dori then back to the drawing again to study it. Ori took it from Dori’s grasp and started to trace the drawing with his fingers. Dori watched as his little brother traced their mother’s face with a strange expression that the older dwarf couldn’t quite decipher but could practically see the wheels turning in the little one’s head. As Dori was trying to figure out what Ori was thinking the little dwarf jumped off his lap and ran to Dori’s old dresser. Before Dori could ask what he was doing the little ginger dwarf climbed on the small chair to reach the mirror and studied his own reflection. Dori opened his mouth to question Ori’s motives but immediately closed it as Ori started to trace his own face like he had with his mother’s portrait. Dori watched his brother as he looked back and forth from the portrait to his own face that, Dori couldn’t help but notice, was looking quite determined to find something.

 

“Ori, what are you doing?” Dori asked standing up and minding the pile of papers and other portraits before walking to his dresser to stand beside him. The dwarfling turned to his brother, his chubby hand cupping his own cheek now and gave Dori an inquisitive look.

 

“Do I- Do I look like her Dori?” Ori asked with a voice that was almost a whisper.

 

It was such an innocent question and to Dori it was easily answered. Though all three brothers of the odd Ri family had different fathers, as many of their neighbors liked to remind them every day at the market, Dori had always held onto the fact that all of them had their mother’s eyes. Yes Nori had his father’s roguish grin and nimble fingers, Ori had his father’s temperament, and Dori had his father’s premature silvering hair but all of them had their mother’s eyes. Although Dori had a suspicion that Ori was starting to develop their mother’s monstrous strength like he himself had after seeing him lift Nori after he arrived after months of being gone.

 

“Of course you do.” Dori said smiling, “We all do.”

 

Dori faced the mirror and looked on proudly at his baby brother and himself. The neighbors could talk all they want about their less than noble blood remind them of their different fathers but no one could deny the golden brown of the brother’s eyes that was the exact shade of their mother’s. Their faces weren’t the same of course, Nori had high cheek bones and a thin face while Dori had a round face and nose much like his father. Ori, in Dori’s opinion, looked the most like their mother, even if the little one couldn’t see it. He didn’t have just her eyes, he had her sweet smile and her long nose, Dori would even go as far to say he had the same freckles that had speckled their mother’s face.

 

The picture that they had been looking at together was the only portrait they had left of their mother, it was one of the few items that had taken with them from Erebor in the little time that they had. Dori remembered grabbing Nori and running as their mother grabbed for miscellaneous objects and screamed for her husband who never made it out of the mountain.

 

It was so long ago that the sketch was done and to Dori it felt like a few lifetimes had passed since those days. So many times Dori had looked back on his mother and was saddened by the fact that Ori would never know her. Ori deserved a mother who loved and adored him just like he and Nori had. He deserved to see where his eyes had come from.

 

Dori looked at the mirror one last time then to Ori who was now studying his older brother’s face. Dori smiled and grabbed Ori gently under his arms and picked him up to set him on the floor.

 

“Come on little one,” He said turning him to the door and motioning him out of his room, “You need to eat your dinner and wash up for bed.”

 

“But I don’t wanna wash.” Ori huffed, walking towards the door, “I’m just gonna get dirty again.”

 

Dori chuckled at his brother’s whining and followed the dwarfling down the stairs to where a now clean kitchen and a bowl of stew waited for them.

 

 Ori may not have a mother but he did have her eyes, he had her face, and her two older sons to look after him and love him like she would have. He had what she had left behind for him and that was, to him just as good. To Dori, no matter what hardships they went through or how many fights that Nori and he had, he just had to look at Nori’s or Ori’s eyes to be reminded that things were alright because he still had them. Dori had lost a lot of things in his life, but he still had them.

 

Their eyes had always brought him comfort and now as he thought of Nori out with his friends and as he watched Ori eat, he looked into his little brother’s eyes, their mother’s eyes, and felt more at ease than he had in a long while.

**Author's Note:**

> Please tell me what you thought and if you'd like maybe some helpful criticism to help me out. Thanks for reading :)


End file.
